I agree, with my small skid steer. one guy two days, two guys one day 20 man hours. I would prefer 2 guys one day. I just did a 315 sq ft patio the a couple weeks ago there was 25 man hours into it without my skidsteer.

So basically what you are saying is one man does the job alone right, because one guy needs to be running the skid steer (which is the wrong tool to dig a patio btw especially in clay such as your area) and the other guy is hauling the fill out of there. So now you are alone doing this patio. Then with your mini skid steer you are going to fill the patio one bucket at a time, which is how much in your small skid? wheelbarrow and a half at most? Now lets assume that the granular stone is dumped in the front yard and the patio is out back, thats alot of time invested in driving back and forth with the skid (small skid that is) then what I want to know is who is doing the compacting while you are running back and forth, if its you then aint no one hauling granular and raking it while you are doing this. I don't have time to go on about it but in the real world that job is not feasible in twenty hours. I gotta get to work, have a nice day.